The overseas growth, in both value and volume, comes in spite of the recently completed harvest emerging as one of the earliest and poorest in the post-war period, resulting in a 26% drop in production, compared to last year. However, Italy will still remain a leading wine producer, with production of about 40 million hectolitres.

Production

Foreign sales have grown by 6% in the US, which is by far the largest customer for Italian wines, 3% in Germany, and 8% in the UK.

In terms of percentage growth, the best performance was achieved in Russia (+47%). China registered 25% growth, but the presence of Italian wines remains limited there.

Boosting the growth of exports is the Italian sparkling-wine sector (+15%), which should reach the historical record of €1.2 billion in 2017.

The decline of wine consumption in Italy, which has more than halved in the last 30 years, has stopped, and consumption currently amounts to an estimated 33 litres per person per year – lower than that of France, where the average is 45 litres per person per year.